Genzyme – Eva Zlotnicka – 2010

Goals

Eva Zlotnicka spent her EDF Climate Corps fellowship with Genzyme, a leading global biotechnology company dedicated to making a major positive impact on the lives of people with serious diseases. Zlotnicka, a joint MBA/MESc candidate at Yale University, focused her time on strategies and tools that would centralize and systematize energy efficiency initiatives across Genzyme’s global portfolio.

Solutions

Based upon interviews with a variety of stakeholders, Zlotnicka codified the requirements for a global decision tool to be used for identification, selection and tracking of energy efficiency projects. She also discovered the hidden value of such a standardized platform of information: the transfer of best practices among sites as well as enhanced communication between the site and corporate levels of management. Together, this could empower individual managers to participate in reaching the company’s greenhouse gas emissions target of a 25 percent reduction, normalized to revenue, from 2007 to 2012.

Alongside her recommended software solution, Zlotnicka designed an implementation plan for the supporting people, processes and policies needed to ensure adoption and integration of the tool and the execution of its results. Zlotnicka also explored specific opportunities to reduce energy use at a selection of Genzyme’s buildings in the Boston area. She recommended projects bringing thousands of dollars in potential annual electricity savings through removing excess equipment and installing improved appliance and building controls, which would require minimal upfront costs and limited business interruption.